MAYOR: GO SLOW ON POLICE STATION PLAN

Serra wants the police building committee to answer all questions and fill in every detail before the project, expected to cost $8 million to $12 million, is presented to voters.

And he doesn't care if that means the issue is not on the November ballot as originally planned.

"I think we ought not to rush on this, even though it's been around for some time," Serra said.

The mayor wants to be able to tell voters, "This is what you're going to get and this is what it is going to cost."

"I will not ask people for a blank check. I will not have people being skeptical about things," Serra said.

Opposition has been building toward the proposal, which calls for the conversion of the old Superior Court building and adjacent buildings.

Police Chief George R. Aylward says renovating a building or buildings is a bad idea. He asked the committee earlier this month not to present the plan to the common council on Sept. 6.

Members of the Republican town committee have spoken out against the site, too. They want to see cost comparisons between Court Street and other proposed sites.

Details of the preliminary blueprints have raised concern, too.

"There is all kinds of guessing and speculation," Serra said. "Why can't we back up and say, `Look at it?' "

"Expediency works only in a few percentages of the time," he said. "We have to be thorough on this."

Serra, who is scheduled to meet today with committee Chairman Paul Rebot and Vice Chairwoman Claudia DeFrance, said he thinks committee members will have no qualms about going slow.

"They're all from Middletown -- they want the best for the city," he said.

"That's a great idea," Rebot said when told of Serra's proposal.

The committee has moved like gangbusters on the project, he said, working enthusiastically to find the best solution.

"We took the bit and went," Rebot said. "The only thing the committee can be faulted for is being overzealous."

He said he thinks the committee members will continue to serve if asked after presenting their report to the council Sept. 6.

"If we don't make the November ballot, so be it. We want to see the building built," he said.

Joseph E. Milardo Jr., the council minority leader, said he believes Serra is doing the right thing.

"He's developing some degree of sensitivity to the public's concern for the project," Milardo said. "This project has too many questions right now. . . . I would not be prepared to vote on any site until I see the numbers."

Aylward agreed the proposal needs to be "fleshed out, priced out and designed so people can look at it and know what is being spent and what they're going to get for their dollars."

He added, "Really, they should have done it before the site was presented, to be honest with you."